Highly pathogenic avian flu has scored six more hits in the Midwest, including Nebraska's second big layer chicken farm, South Dakota's first affected layer farm, and two farms each in Minnesota and Iowa, state officials announced today.
The Minnesota sites are egg-production and turkey farms, while the Iowa outbreaks involve two pullet farms.
Nebraska sites close together
The Nebraska outbreak involves a farm that has 1.8 million layer hens and is close to the big layer farm stung by the state's first H5N2 outbreak, announced 2 days ago, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) said today. The two sites, both owned by the same producer, are in Dixon County in the northeastern part of the state, close to Iowa and South Dakota.
"Having a second farm in Nebraska confirmed to have [highly pathogenic avian influenza] is unfortunate but not completely unexpected. This follows the pattern we've seen in other states when it comes to the spread of the virus," said NDA Director Greg Ibach in the agency's announcement.
Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts has declared an emergency to provide the NDA and other state agencies with appropriate resources to respond to the avian flu situation, the NDA said.
The other infected Dixon County farm housed 1.7 million layer chickens. Before the outbreaks, the state's total population of layer hens was about 9.45 million, according to earlier reports.
Largest South Dakota outbreak
In eastern South Dakota's Moody County, Dakota Layers, an egg farm with 1.3 million chickens, has been struck by an H5 virus, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. It is the state's first layer farm infected with what will probably be confirmed as H5N2, the story said.
Assuming the outbreak is confirmed, it will be South Dakota's ninth H5N2 incursion. It is the largest so far and comes after the report of two turkey-farm outbreaks in the Yankton area yesterday.
An unusual number of deaths in one of the farm's nine barns prompted testing for avian flu, according to the AP. South Dakota State Veterinarian Dustin Oedekoven said crews would begin euthanizing the chickens after they determine how best to handle the outbreak.
Dakota Layers' Chief Executive Officer Scott Ramsdell said in a statement today that Dakota Layers had taken "extensive biosecurity measures" over the past 2 months to prevent an outbreak, the AP reported. "Unfortunately, as many poultry farms are discovering, even our extraordinary measures proved ineffective in preventing the spread of avian influenza into one of our barns," he said.
Dakota Layers produces more than 90,000 eggs daily, shipping about 70% of them to California, the story said.
Moody County borders Minnesota's Pipestone County, which has had one H5N2 outbreak in backyard poultry and one on a turkey farm.
South Dakota's current count of birds lost to avian flu is about 1.65 million, according to the state Animal Industry Board (AIB).
Minnesota H5N2 count reaches 87
In Minnesota, the tally of H5N2 events reached 87 today with outbreaks on a layer farm in Renville County and a turkey farm in Meeker County, according to the state Department of Public Safety (DPS). Both counties adjoin Kandiyohi County, which has had 32 outbreaks—by far the most in the state.
Flock size information for the two farms was not yet available. Minnesota has had only three previous outbreaks on layer farms, as turkey farms have accounted for all but a few of the incursions, according to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.
Renville County has now had two H5N2 outbreaks, while Meeker has had nine, the DPS said.
Officials put Minnesota's cumulative poultry loss at 5.76 million birds, not counting farms where flock sizes are still being estimated.
Before today, Minnesota had gone 2 days without detecting any new H5N2 attacks, raising hopes that the crisis was beginning to fade. Officials expect that warmer temperatures and more hours of sunlight will eventually end the outbreaks.
Iowa tally climbs to 52 farms
Meanwhile, two pullet farms in neighboring northwestern Iowa counties—Sioux and Plymouth—have been invaded by an H5 avian flu virus, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) reported today. The Plymouth event is the county's first, but Sioux has now had 12 outbreaks.
Estimated bird counts for the two farms were pending, as is confirmatory testing by the US Department of Agriculture, the IDALS said.
The two events raise Iowa's count of affected farms to 52, the statement said. Most of the incursions have involved layer chicken farms, and the state has lost more than 25 million layers to the virus, according to recent reports.
See also:
May 14 NDA announcement
May 14 AP report on South Dakota outbreak
May 14 South Dakota AIB update
May 14 Minnesota DPS announcement
May 14 IDALS announcement
